


Blind

by tveckling



Category: Romeo And Juliet - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Angst, Bipolar Mercutio, Body Horror, Gen, Implied/Referenced Drug Use, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, Vomiting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-19
Updated: 2018-05-19
Packaged: 2019-05-09 03:11:01
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 795
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14708009
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tveckling/pseuds/tveckling
Summary: It isn’t so much noise as the lack of it that grabs Valentine’s attention. It’s a Saturday night and he should be hearing music from Mercutio’s room. That he doesn’t is what brings him out into the hallway and knocking on his brother’s door. There’s a feeling in his stomach, a sense of wrongness, that grows heavier when Mercutio doesn’t answer. His hands are getting clammy as he knocks again, harder. As he strains his ears, listening for Mercutio’s footsteps, he hears—something, he doesn’t know what. But Mercutio still doesn’t open the door and Valentine’s heart is in his throat, so he ignores his manners and pushes the door open.





	Blind

It isn’t so much noise as the lack of it that grabs Valentine’s attention. It’s a Saturday night and he should be hearing music from Mercutio’s room. That he doesn’t is what brings him out into the hallway and knocking on his brother’s door. There’s a feeling in his stomach, a sense of wrongness, that grows heavier when Mercutio doesn’t answer. His hands are getting clammy as he knocks again, harder. As he strains his ears, listening for Mercutio’s footsteps, he hears—something, he doesn’t know what. But Mercutio still doesn’t open the door and Valentine’s heart is in his throat, so he ignores his manners and pushes the door open.

Mercutio is hunched over on the floor, and now that Valentine is in the room he can hear heaving gasps from his brother, hear how he swallows what sounds like groans as he does—something, again. The light is on but Mercutio is turned away, with only his back visible, and Valentine can see his shoulders shake, see his whole body shake. There’s something in the air, a smell Valentine can’t place, and he wonders what his brother has done now. 

“Mercutio, is something wrong?”

Mercutio doesn’t answer him, and the bad feeling gets even stronger. He has to get closer, has to snap Mercutio out of whatever fantasy land he has entered, but when Valentine steps around Mercutio and finally sees him his mind goes blank with horror. Only for a moment, though, before his mind truly register what he’s seeing and reacts by purging his stomach of its contents. Valentine barely manages to turn away so his vomit ends up on the floor.

As he’s desperately taking shaky breaths before another wave of nausea overwhelms him, blinking back tears, Valentine realizes what that heavy smell is. Blood.

Mercutio is a shaking wreck, unaware that there’s someone else in the room with him. His hands are moving tirelessly across his face, across his eyes, scratching and clawing, and his hands are drenched in blood. His face is drenched in blood, as is the front of his shirt and his pants. Valentine only manages to glance back at him, getting a better look at the disfigured mess that is Mercutio’s face, before bile rises in his throat again. By now there’s nothing left to throw up, though.

 _What have you done?_ Valentine thinks as he blinks, trying to wipe his eyes clear with shaking hands. He wipes his mouth with his sleeve and tries to talk, but his throat hurts and only a wheeze comes out.

Mercutio is still moving, clawing at his eyes with a desperation that Valentine has never seen before.

“Mercutio. Mercutio!” Valentine doesn’t get a reaction until he grabs Mercutio’s shoulders and shakes him.

“Wha-” Mercutio doesn’t lower his hands much, still holds them in front of his face, but he stops mutilating himself.

“Cutio, what have you done?” It’s hard to speak, but not because of the ache of throwing up, but because of the sobs that are moving through Valentine’s body. “ _What have you done?_ ”

“Val,” Mercutio breathes out, and a ghost of a smile moves across his lips. “I needed to do it, don’t you see? They were everywhere, wherever I looked, and I couldn’t get rid of them. I tried to ignore them, but they wouldn’t go away. I needed to make them stop. So I took some K, and at first it worked; I didn’t see them, or if I did I didn’t care. But it didn’t work! It didn’t work!” He grasps Valentine’s arms, blood running from his eyes like tears. “They came back, and they were so angry, Val. They were so angry, and I had to do something, I had to make them stop. I knew it was just in my head, I know, but I couldn’t make them go away. I couldn’t take it, I had to make it stop.”

“So you destroyed your own eyes?” Valentine was crying now, the clear fluid matching the thick one on his brother’s face.

Mercutio smiles for real then, his face peaceful and happy, despite the state it’s in. “But I did it. I can’t see them, so they have no power over me anymore. I did it.”

Valentine doesn’t know what to say, so he swallows hard and wills his hands to stop shaking. “You need- hospital. God, you need to get to the hospital.” He raises his voice, unwilling to let go of Mercutio. What if he would start again if Valentine went away? “Uncle! Uncle, wake up! Please. Uncle, we need help! Help!”

“It’s okay,” Mercutio murmurs, leaning forward into Valentine’s chest. “It’s all okay now.”

Valentine closes his eyes and keep shouting, because he doesn’t know what else to do.


End file.
